svala`s graphics

This is prt. 2/3 of "svala`s animation: 101". This time it`s all about

ANIMATIONSHOP3

Okay, you have all of your screencaps waiting for you, shiny and bright. And now they want to move, and run, and jump. This brings us to AnimationShop3

1. In AnimationShop, go to FILE - ANIMATION WIZARD (that`s the only feature I use in AS3)

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2. A new window shows up, choose this setting - click OK
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3. A new window shows up choose this setting - click OK
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4. A new window shows up choose this setting - click OK
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BLABLABLABLA

5. A new window shows up
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So, now we`re getting somewhere. The number you can see is set to 8. This is what I usually try first for an animation. This is the amount of time for each frame. If it`s set too high, like 20, the animations looks as if it`s playing in slow mo, and I mean SLOW MO *yikes* If it`s set too low, like 4, the animation looks like a rabbit on the run. Sooo, 8 is a good number. Sometimes I go up to 10 or down to 6, but that`s pretty much it = CLICK OK

6. A new window shows up
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Now you need to select the pictures you want to use for the animation. Look for the folder of your caps, select and open all caps.

Click OK (or continue), then click OK (or finalize?), then all of your caps will open in animationshop, in a row (and this is why I just love to prepare all of my caps in PSP. Because now? it´s pretty much slap and done only)

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You can preview your animation by clicking the "View Animation" Tool on the Top Toolbar
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if you like what you see, go to FILE - SAVE AS

Name your animation and save it as a gif. If you are prompted to optimize the gif, just keep clicking NEXT until it`s done.

(since these are sidebar animations, I don`t have to care because of the file size so AnimationShop is running at full speed. The only limit I need to keep in mind is the 10MB upload/image limit at Photobucket. Now, the animated icons for Livejournal and Dreamwidth? that`s another story, because the file limit is 40kb. The few times I`ve done animated icons so far, I`ve done them pretty much the same as the sidebar animations. The only difference is, I`ve cheated with the finished and uploaded animated icon. The finished Icons are saved with Photoshop`s ImageReady. Because IR is much better in quality, when it comes with saving the small sized icons.)

anyway .... Voila, finished animation:



Now, this is 450x253. It`s a tiny, tiny bit too big for a sidebar animation *snort* = resizing

And that`s easy done in AnimationShop

Go to ANIMATION - RESIZE ANIMATION (or CHANGE ANIMATION SIZE ?) and you get this:

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choose your prefered size (mine is 250x141 & 160x90), choose "smart size", check aspect ratio !!! that is IMPORTANT. If you don`t check the ratio, the animation is going to look like crap

Click OK, AnimationShop is going to render the animation into the smaller size

Preview the animation again, if you like what you see, save it



re-sized animation, size 250x141

ADD: I tend to do different size for the same animation. Each time, after I`ve resized and saved an animation, I use the *step back* arrow. This cancels the saving of the previous animation. I`ve figured, if I save an animation, and then change the size again right away, it`s a huge loss in quality. So with using the *step back* arrow, I more or less reset the animation to its original quality, then resize again.

If you think the animation runs to slow, or too fast go to

EDIT - CHOOSE ALL

(now you`ve selected all of your animation caps. NOTE: REMEMBER THIS !!! It comes in handy in prt. 3 of my "Svala`s animation 101" tutorial.

Go back to your caps, right click on any of the caps, a new window shows up

go to FRAME PROPERTIES

this will bring back the window where you can pick the time/frame. If it`s too slow, go down with the number, if it`s too fast, go up. Click OK.

Preview the animation, if you like what you see, save as gif, done.

And this brings me to the end of prt.2. I need to turn this into a 3 part tutorial, because it`s longer than I thought it`ll be.

Anyway, I hope, once again, everything is as clear as mud *giggles*. If you have an question, feel free to ask. I still don´t bite, often

In prt.3 I`ll show you how I get these animations done:



as you can see, there`s a fade in/fade out, but also a brush sitting on top of everything. It took me some time to figure this out (and of course it made me want to bang my head into a wall afterwards, sometimes I`m with stupid. Because it`s actually more than easy done, but it took me forever and a day to figure out how) by now it`s one of my prefered extras for an animation.

- prt.1 can be found here: @OverTheHills

- prt.3 can be found here: @OverTheHills